Electrical Issue Scuppers Impressive Monza Showing‏ for Ahmad Al Harthy

Round one of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Monza ended with a disappointing retirement for the Oman Racing Team early in the final hour of racing on Sunday, 13th April, when an unfortunate electrical problem forced the No.44 Aston Martin out of the battle for a potential top 10 finish.Muscat racer Ahmad Al Harthy, who is this year teaming with British drivers Stephen Jelley and Michael Caine in the Pro Cup class of the pan-European championship, had done everything right during his one hour stint after a similarly strong opening hour from Jelley.Prior to pitting for the final driver change, to hand the Oman Air, Oman Ministry of Tourism, Oman Ministry of Sports Affairs, Nawras, National Bank of Oman and Al Hashar Group/Aston Martin Oman backed car to Caine, Ahmad had worked his way into ninth in the Pro Cup and 11th place overall.No sooner had Caine joined the track, though, than the Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 started to develop a problem with the power cutting out so he returned to the pits. Doing everything possible to get to the bottom of the issue, the Motorbase Performance mechanics – the strength behind the Oman Racing Team – were forced to eventually decide to retire the car after a very strong showing.“As soon as Michael took over the car started behaving strangely, shutting itself down and just not running properly at all”, explained Ahmad, “So, he pitted and the guys in the team did absolutely everything they could to try and fix the problem, they changed everything possible but still couldn’t get to the bottom of it – we’re sure it’s something electrical.“Until then everything was going very well, really strong, and I was happy with my stint. My pace and consistency were good and I did everything asked of me by the team, we all did our absolute best but it just wasn’t to be unfortunately. That’s the nature of endurance racing and we all know that.”After a good getaway to the three-hour encounter from the rolling start, where he held 19th position overall, Jelley concluded lap one in an improved 16th place. Running consistently, the Briton climbed into 12th overall, ninth in the Pro Cup class, before handing over the Aston Martin to Ahmad with 58 minutes of racing completed.Emerging from the opening round of pit-stops outside the top 20, the Omani 32-year-old made progress back through the order and within four laps he was into 16th position and back into the top 10 in the Pro Cup.Posting some impressive times and running in fairly close company with the Bentley of 2003 Le Mans 24 Hours winner Guy Smith, Ahmad’s trademark consistency shone through. Passing more cars during the latter part of his stint, he ended his hour in the car ninth in the Pro Cup and 11th overall.With everything looking good for an impressively strong start to the Blancpain Endurance Series season, it then all went wrong for the Oman Racing Team mere minutes into Caine’s stint when the electrical problem surfaced. Even so, the squad takes away a lot of positivity from the event.Round two of the Blancpain Endurance Series, which will be contested at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit in the UK, will take place over the weekend 23rd/24th/25th May. Before then, Ahmad and the Oman Racing Team will be in action at Oulton Park in England this coming weekend for the first two races of the 2014 Avon Tyres British GT Championship season.


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